CASB Report for January, 2000

Highlights for Division Meeting

· GSC 2.1.0 with ~250 million objects was delivered to GEMINI and ESO/VLT for preliminary operational testing.

Community Affairs and Communications

· GSC 2.1.0 release sent to GEMINI, ESO/VLT and OATo

· Morrison wrote the first draft of the GSC 1.2 paper.

Project Management and Technical Infrastructure

· Fabrizia Guglielmetti transferred to an AURA position and is now being trained to perform plate scanning.

MISSION SUPPORT

HST Operations

· Received one new GSPR (Guide Star Problem Report) this period. The GSPR documents a Fine Lock Walk Down failure due to a close double star.

STIS-BOP

· Continued discussions with Contact/Instrument Scientists. Prepared a requirements document for the STIS BOP GUI that will be available for STIS, ACS and COS, in cycle 10.

· Supported Contact Scientists’ requests for consultation on BOP analysis for Jupiter targets.

NGST Guiding Studies

· Planning consultant visit to STScI next month to continue work on this activity.

DIGITIZED SKY SURVEY

Plate Scanning

· Completed scanning the sixth shipment of UKST-IR plates.

· Completed scanning the southern F plates in the latest shipment and started scanning the UKST-IR plates also contained in that shipment.

· Production rate was low due to continuing GAMMA2 problems.

GAMMA Microdensitometer Systems

· Determined that the laser on the lower shelf of GAMMA2 was malfunctioning, and replaced it. The lower shelf was removed from GAMMA2 for this procedure, and the new laser was aligned primarily in the Instrument Lab, and briefly tested. Re-installed the shelf on GAMMA2 and performed alignment checks.

· After replacement of the GAMMA2 laser, performed an extensive sequence of ruling scans to redetermine the proper y pixel step size and forward/reverse pass synchronization. Determined that parameters established prior to the laser failure were now unacceptable. Empirically found new optimum configurations and started a test image data scan. After a quick-look analysis was performed it was noticed that shading coefficients (used to normalize the laser across the 5 channels) were not as effective as they had been prior to the laser replacement. Tests are now underway to determine the nature of the problem. Clipping of the beam is a prime suspect.

Data Compression/CD Production

· Awaiting the receipt, scanning, and compressing of the final plate from Palomar before the last four J plates can be archived.

Archive Maintenance

· Recycled old redundant 9-track tapes of early GSCP-II data and their storage racks.

· With Facilities support, found and installed used cabinets for growing collection of MODs.

· Remade three CDROMs for the Japanese collaborators.

· Found a new problem with header production for the CDROMs - problem not yet resolved.

· Inventoried data collection and forecast media usage for the remainder of the project.

Software Development

· No progress reported in investigation of a GETIMAGE failure with the DSS-I, first reported by the NAOJ Astronomical Data Analysis Center.

GSC-II

Plate Processing

· Recalibration of the database plates continues and should be completed soon. Over 1400 plates have been recalibrated in the last few months.

COMPASS Database

· (OATo) Development and testing of multi-plate QA routines interfaced to COMPASS are under way.

· Completed QA of GSC 2.1.0 data export and sent DLT tapes to collaborators.

· Updated GSC2Query code to handle situation where the primary magnitude (F band) was unavailable.

· Held meetings with Alan Ezust (Objectivity consultant) about database design issues and known problems. Developed strategy for concurrent update processes.

· Upgraded to Objectivity release 5.2 to solve a number of outstanding known problems.

CALIBRATIONS: Astrometry

CALIBRATIONS: Classification

· Developed classification QA tools to compare the pipeline classifications for GSPC-II stars and a subset of GSC-I objects. Although these catalogs are not optimal for classification QA, they do contain classified objects over the entire sky. Thus, this level of QA can be performed on all plates, not only those for which a specially processed CCD dataset exists. Since these tools operate on MCO files, they can also be used on any catalog accessible to XSPAM or the FINDCAT task.

· Developed IDL tools to read in both old and new production format decision tree files. We can now analyze the actual files being used in the pipeline in the same way that we can analyze trees in the “tree-building” stage.

· (OATo) Automating the routines used to compare classification results with the NED, NPM/SPM Catalogs so that they can be used as secondary QA. The code is being run on the NGP zone to compare the classification changes made by V. Laidler last month.

CALIBRATIONS: Photometry (GSPC-II and DSS-I and -II)

· Added the utility to identify the GSPC-II sequence, formerly done by ANALYZE_GP2_SEQUENCE, and in the process fixed a bug in writing the sequence information to the GSH header file.

· Installed the PC prototype running Linux. It runs several image processing packages and utilities. Successfully performed several tests and debugging.

· Developed the capability to display the GSPC-II catalog on the Skycat interface; it is accessible to everyone.

· The KPNO observing run, currently in progress to investigate the vignetting function, is at risk due to bad weather.

· (OATO) Fixed the astrometry of about 50 remaining ESO fields with wrong astrometry code from IRAF. These objects are being re-named and a new version of the GSCP-II pipeline catalog is being built.

· Selected a sub-set of 163 equatorial fields with multiple observations and good astrometry for QA. Of these fields, those that pass the QA tests will be made publicly available via FTP.

· In response to a call for a window of opportunity at the JKT telescope of La Palma in mid-February, submitted a request for four nights of gray time.

GSC-II General Software Development

· Identified and corrected a bug in the CLASSIFY task that corrupted the values of the decision tree.

· Delivered a bugfix build of CLASSIFY and APPLY_CALIBS at STScI and OATo.

· Discovered a discrepancy between the decision tree file being used in production, and the latest “best” decision tree file in develop. Replaced the production version with the develop version.

· Ported the improved APPLY_CALIB on VMS to NT.

· Started work to integrate the Mendez Star count code into COMPASS QA.

GSC-II Science

· (OATo) Support of the VMS archive of CRA scan images on DLTs is progressing and should be concluded in few weeks.

· In collaboration with the Naples Observatory, OATo is determining membership of classical and weak-lined T-Tauri associations from proper motions towards the Chameleon SFR.

· Submitted proposal to Apache Point Observatory to perform spectroscopic observations on a number of NGP field stars that may be a co-moving stream.

Appendix – CASB Statistical Summary

SCANNING

Survey		Goal	Previous Month	Current Month	Current Total	% done	Notes	Priority
POSS-II J	897		898	0	898	100		1
POSS-II F	897		907	0	907	100	S4	1
POSS-II N	897		787	0	787	88		1
AAO-SES	606		602	4	606	100	S4	1
PPARC-ER	288		252	18	270	94		1
AAO-SR	118		118	0	118	100	S2	-
UKST-IR	894		272	13	285	32		2
SERC-J/EJ	447		443	0	443	99	S1	2
POSS-I E	106		106	0	106	100	S3	3
POSS-I O	880		30	0	30	3		3
Rescans			18	0	18

• S1. Low priority program to rescan crowded fields (|b|<30) originally done with 25 mu scans. The total number of S scans includes the 2 for the LMC and SMC plus 4 others with |b|>30 performed for research or STIS BOP support. Another 30 plates have been added to replace those that were repaired before inclusion in DSS-I.
• S2. This survey is an on-going low level-of-effort collaboration between the STScI and the AAO. About 25-50 plates have been added in each of the past few years.
• S3. Low priority scans of the POSS-I -24 deg and -30 deg zones.
• S4. Includes recent scans of better grade plates.

COMPRESSION

Survey	Goal	Previous Month	Current Month	Current Total	% done	Notes	Priority
POSS-II J	897	893	0	893	99		2
POSS-II F	897	877	0	877	98		1
POSS-II N	897	25	17	42	5		3
AAO SES	606	572	0	572	94		1
PPARC ER	288	245	0	245	85		1
UKST-IR	894	0	0	0	0		3

MO DISK ARCHIVING

Survey	Goal	Previous Month	Current Month	Current Total	% done	Notes	Priority
POSS-II J	897	902	0	902	100		4
POSS-II F	897	878	0	878	98		3
POSS-II N	897	60	6	66	7		4
AAO-SES	606	576	0	576	95		3
PPARC-ER	288	157	82	239	83		3
AAO-SR	109	0	0	0	0		4
UKST-IR	894	0	0	0	0		5
SERC-J/EJ	894	892	0	892	100
SERC-J/REPAIR	48	48	0	48	100
POSS-I E	933	928	0	928	99		2
POSS-I REPAIR	198	198	0	198	100		2
POSS-QV	613	613	0	613	100		-
SERC-QV	94	94	0	94	100		-
GPO/BB	88	88	0	88	100		-

GSC-II PLATE PROCESSING

Survey	Goal	Previous Month	Current Month	Current Total	% done	Notes	Priority
POSS-I E	880	66	0	66	2		3
POSS-QV	613	0	0	0	0		3
POSS-II J	897	887	0	887	99	G1	1
POSS-II F	897	897	0	897	100		1
POSS-II N	897	41	0	41	5		4
SERC-J/EJ	894	822	0	822	92		1
South-F	894	815	0	815	91		1
UKST-IR	894	2	0	2	0		4
South-SR	118	110	0	110	93		2
South-QV	94	94	0	94	100		2

• G1. Plate processing is nearly complete. Efforts are now concentrated on recalibration and database load.

GSC-II COMPASS DATABASE LOAD (total number entries = 954731259)

Survey	Goal	Previous Month	Current Month	Current Total	% done	Notes	Priority
POSS-I E	880	0	0	0	0		3
POSS-QV	613	0	0	0	0		3
POSS-II J	897	441	0	441	49		1
POSS-II F	897	728	0	728	81		1
POSS-II N	897	0	0	0	0		4
SERC-J	894	120	3	123	14		1
South-F	894	461	0	461	51		1
UKST-IR	894	0	0	0	0		4
South-SR	109	13	0	13	12		2
South-QV	94	13	0	13	14		2

GSC-II Dataset for V2.1.1 delivery (1791 Fields, 3438 plates) (P1)

Item	Count	% done	Notes
Plates available	3417	99
Plates processed	3355	98
DB Load	1787	52
Recalibration	1482	43

• P1. Defined as all 897 POSS fields with 1794 plates plus 894 southern fields minus the 72 southern equatorial fields with 1644 plates.

GSPC-II OBSERVATIONS

Survey	Goal	Previous Month	Current Month	Current Total	% done	Notes	Priority
POSS-I	584	578	0	578	99		1
POSS-II	295	144	0	144	49		1
SERC	894	873	0	873	98		1

GSPC-II REDUCTIONS

Survey	Goal	Previous Month	Current Month	Current Total	% done	Notes	Priority
POSS-I	584	578	0	578	99	P1	1
POSS-II	295	144	0	144	49		1
SERC	894	873	0	873	98		1

• P1. The current total has decreased because these numbers reflect re-processed data.